[Orphanage] Daily Duties

[Zao]

It had been nearly a week since his last free day, hopefully it wouldn't end up like the last one had as he forced himself out of his single rack and turned to neatly make the sheet and blanket before finally fluffing the pillow a bit and ensuring it looked orderly, as was the daily routine set forth by their senior supervisor from the third class. A young man who was in the third-year class, two years ahead of himself and his friends in the fifth years class that was filled with all the new students from this year. After doing so he grabbed his back and stopped at the half-length mirror to check himself over, sweeping his white hair back a bit he took a mental note that he probably could use a haircut soon, but he had training on his mind this morning and thus went straight to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast and after chatting with a few of his fellow fifth year students on their off day as well he dipped out and moved through the maze of hallways within the Avian house out to the main campus, stopping at the first training field.

The training field had more than just some logs and training dummies places out in the barren lots, it had fellow students and some A and B rank teachers out to help supervise training. They also were there to loan out different equipment for training including weapons or training weights, etc. Signing them out directly to the student to be used as they saw fit then directly returned back to the equipment section to be used by other students. One was careful not to damage them, within reason, as it would come out of their own pocket and some not so kind words would be passed to that student's teachers. On this day the white-haired kid walked up to the senior student who was helping out this morning with signing out equipment, "Good morning, what are you trying to sign out today?" Ziv had already thought about this question for a few days, especially after completing the aptitude test and then his experience on the outer edge of town he knew that he needed to be stronger, not just in his ninjutsu but physically.

"Good morning, could I sign out a set of wrist and ankle training weights?" The older student looked over the edge of the desk, taking in the size of the kid before him, which was tiny to say the least but nodded and went back grabbing one of the lighter sets of weights. "These should do for you." Ziv reached across the desk, meeting him halfway and grabbed the set of weights but his hands didn't budge in the slightest as the third year dropped them into his hands. "Um, could I go up one level, please?" He wasn't trying to come off as rude but despite the look of his thin body his muscles were probably a step above most his age, so he asked politely to the fellow student who took note of the apparent strength of the kid. "Well, sure. Seems like you might be able to handle yourself. " With a moment of hesitation, the fellow student took back the first set and handed him the second level set that caused the blue-eyed kid to feel some weight as they dropped into his grasp. "These are much better, thank you, senior." He responded politely, then handed him his identification badge so that he was able to take down his information and ensure everything was signed out properly before it was returned to him, and he moved to a nearby bench to put the weights on.

Taking a seat, he slipped on the ankle weights first, they weren't extremely heavy but enough to put a constant strain on Ziv's leg muscles as he picked them up to move, then he moved from his ankles to put on the wrist weights that went on more like mixed martial arts gloves that came up onto the knuckle of each hand. This made making hand seals a bit tough, but still doable for training, but he wasn't here to work on ninjutsu or his chakra control. Standing up no and walking around a bit he adjusted the strap of his cross-body bag on his back now and turned toward the path that led out of the training grounds and towards the main entrance of the area. He had some duties from his own house, the Avian, to attend to today, as well. So, he was trying to knock out two birds with one stone, the saying was, as he used the slow walk from the training area to the large archway doors that lead outside of the contained orphanage and school grounds now to let his body get warmed up to the extra weight and after exiting the school grounds onto the dirt path road he broke out in a little jog. The resistance applied by the weights wasn't too much, nor too little at this point as his pace was that of someone still warming up but it also wasn't any faster because the current path, he was on was on an incline as the path twisted back and forth entering into the tree line that led up the foot of the neighboring mountain.

897 words - Strength Training

[Trusted Grader]

Another day, another beautiful free— Yume stopped daydreaming as his shadow bonked him in the head, he wanted to curse at his twin but stopped once the shadow pointed outside the window. From his room he would be able to spot his look-alike make his way towards the training grounds, it seems that he wanted to use his day off to become stronger, which at first made Yume chuckle and lean back, but once his shadow bonked him again he figured that he perhaps shouldn't allow his friend to outpace him. I barely won against him during the aptitude test, then there was that incident where Nehan brought him along on an assignment... Shit... I can't rest huh? He looked over at his shadow who shrugged.

Fine... Yume rose from his bed and tidied it a bit before he put on a white shirt and black shorts, he ignored any socks and just put on his sandals then left his room. Yume was quick to rush through the halls, his toothbrush was working over time and when he was finished he tossed it in the air, his shadow was quick to grab it and zoom back to the bathroom and place it back where it belonged before zooming back to Yume's feet. He opened the second-floor window of the great Avian hall then lept down to the grass, he rolled and tried his best to keep up with Ziv but he was so far ahead that he wouldn't be able to hear him. Yume couldn't tell where he was going first as he had no idea of the full layout yet but Ziv seemed to get the orphanage down easier than he ever did.

Where the hell is he even going? Yume looked at his shadow who shrugged. Is he getting equipment? Yume sighed as he began to lightly jog towards the equipment center. Yume followed procedures and asked for the same equipment as Ziv but had to downgrade due to the sheer weight of the angle and wrist straps. How strong is this guy!? Yume was shocked, fortunately, he had his shadow to help him remove the straps, once he downgraded to a suitable weight he would begin to dash after Ziv. Fortunately for Yume, he knew how to air walk, so the terrain wouldn't even bother him, instead he would run in a straight line and soon find himself running 10 meters above Ziv, his shadow would at this point pop up in 3 Dimensions next to Ziv, doing his signature charade salute before pointing upwards toward Yume who was slowly descending down to Ziv's level.

"I guess some people don't know when to stop huh? Training, on your free day? Sheesh, what kind of life did you live before the orphanage?" A good question he had forgotten to ask Ziv, heck, he barely had time to ask anyone anything as they had been in constant training since inauguration day. In fact, he had planned on taking this day off as his first relaxation day but apparently not, the last time he was given free time Ziv had been taken on an assignment, which sent Yume on a training frenzy, so he had hoped that today would've been different. I guess not...

Yume chuckled as he touched down on the ground next to Ziv, he reached out and pulled up his shadow before he casually fist-bumped it, his eyes were off in the distance for a brief second, trying to figure out where Ziv had planned out his jog route as he slowly down his pace to match his friends. These weights though... They are rather bothersome... Yume couldn't lie and say that he was comfortable training with them on but if his friend could, then so could he!

---

631/600 +1 Endurance.

[Zao]

He had probably only made it about a hundred or so meters up the gently sloping trail, still just in a casual jog at this point until he felt something or perhaps not something but someone. Someone familiar, it was in that moment that the shadow revealed itself, but Ziv wasn't shocked like the other time but almost glad to see it out and about because that could only mean one thing. That its owner was very nearby, and the three-dimensional shadow quickly pointed upwards as the boy cocked his head up and to the right as he could see the figure above him come into view. "I guess you could say that." The white-haired student responded with a smile as he continued at the same pace as before, not changing but easily able to do so and still carry on a light conversation with his fellow Avian, "A little training, plus I have a few daily tasks that I'm supposed to complete so it seemed like I could do both at the same time." As he spoke his bright eyes were able to see that his friend had also been to the equipment center this morning, wearing a similar pair of wrist and ankle weights. "You could say my previous caretakers really cared about training, but I must say, you seem to be following me around doing the same thing."

Ziv shot back his words playfully, seeing that his friend would descend from the high ground in the sky and land next to him keeping pace as he didn't quite increase his speed for the moment and just enjoyed the company of another while he was out and about knocking out his task list. "I needed to check on the griffin eggs, I wanted to see the nest up close, too. At least if we don't get their mama all riled up like she was the last time we saw her. " There was a nervous chuckle that escaped the thin lips of the youth as he thought back about the last time, they had seen the mama griffin when those two trespassers tried to steal an egg from her next. No one wanted to be on the receiving end of an angry mama, at least from what Ziv could tell from that encounter not too long ago. Increasing the pace just a little bit as the winding dirt path started to gain a bit of elevation, the boy wasn't pushing too hard but enough to start to feel the burn in his legs at the moment, after all it was still a bit of a run to reach the end of the high trail they were on plus he also wanted to make a trip down to the bottom of the mountain afterwards to by some parts for his puppets after receiving some Ryo from the orphanage.

478 + 897 = 1375 words

[Trusted Grader]

Yume stopped as Ziv spoke about Griffin eggs, he needed to ponder if it was worth going back there so soon, especially after they just made it from Mamma Griffin. He didn't know how it was for Ziv but for Yume and Rei it was a close one, if it wasn't for Gokariki then he was sure that they would've died back then, and now he wanted to go back there. I don't know... Last time she was really angry, so going back there now seems like we would be spitting in her face. Yume sighed and then jogged next to Ziv. He raised his hand for a few seconds to call his hoverboard, not to ride it but to keep it close if she tried anything funny.

He knew that his shadow could understand him but hoped that one day be able to find a way to get others to truly be able to communicate with him like he could, the weights were slowly starting to drain his stamina, which was all part of the course, it helped his endurance to grow stronger, as his arms and legs were forced to pack on extra burden, once they were removed he would feel like he was made of feathers, which was perfect. If I start to build up my endurance then I can slowly build up my strength, add a little bit more weights and I can start becoming a beast... Although... I don't want to look like a monster like... Professor Shaolong, but still... I want to be strong! He wanted to be able to protect his friends.

"I hope you are sure about this, if it wasn't for Gokaraiki..." Yume stopped speaking right as his shadow jumped on the hoverboard and took off into the forest, he would shout if he could, so instead he gestured his joy as he rode off into the distance. "At least someone is having fun." Yume tried to laugh it off, his nerves were wrecking him but he knew that as long as he kept his focus and didn't try to attack the beast unless it was self-defence then he should be good. "What makes you want to go back to the Griffin eggs?" The boy wondered as he pushed some bushes out of the way, Yume would lead them towards where he had found Rei and begun their squabble, for it was the only way he knew how to find the nest. It was just a little bit further, so the closer they got to the nest, the faster his heart started to pound, his nerves were getting to him.

It should be down here, and then if we follow this trail we should... The boy's mind wandered, his outward appearance was more stoic and brave, it was also around this point that he subtly let Ziv lead the way as he was certain that the boy had gotten a better view of the location than Yume, who was busy fighting at the time. That was embarrassing... To think that he saw it all... The boy looked away. "Go on... Lead." Yume would follow his lead and do as he was told, if there were any short yes or no answers he would respond appropriately unless Ziv had a deeper question. The boy's eyes were always scanning, while his shadow was out trying to create noise and distract the Griffin family.

---

570 +31 = 601/600 +1 Endurance.

[Zao]

It was a bit different for Ziv than it had been for Yume, he hadn't been the one almost on the receiving end of the griffin mama that day, but there was something about the unique animal or perhaps it was more like a spirit. Perhaps it had something to do with his father but even he was drawn to the interesting world of spirits. But it was not completely like his father as Ziv wished to forge his own path in life that was at least somewhat separate from that of his father's old legacy. Soon the duo had already traveled out of sight of the school walls and the forest itself became thicker limiting the pathway as he slowed down to nothing more than a brisk walk at this point. "Perhaps you're right, who knows what mood that griffin is in right now." His friend's words compiled with recalling the scene from the last time made him start to rethink his plan from before, perhaps he didn't need to actually get as close as he was planning to.

Just in that moment the hoverboard that he's fellow student had summoned to him was hijacked by the shadow companion of Yume, this action made the youth laugh out loud as he had to turn his head to the side and cover his mouth, slowly regaining his composure in the moment. "Quite the companion you have. How does your shadow do that?" Ever since the first day that he'd met both the white-haired boy's shadow and him during the aptitude testing event, he couldn't help but wonder how it worked, was it some sort of spirit or perhaps something else that inhabited the shadow of Yume? Up to this point he had never been actually in a one-on-one type of situation where there wasn't a lot of other eyes and ears about, making the conversation a bit more difficult to bring up. But out here in the wilderness away from all the other students and teachers, the curious boy couldn't help but ask his friend now, to learn at least a bit more about him. "I am just interested in the breed; I've never read about them appearing anywhere else in the world but here. Now that I think about out last encounter, perhaps just observing them from the far would be enough today. Neither of us are strong enough to deal with that monster of a mom. " A somewhat nervous chuckle escaped his lips as he tried to peer through the foliage that was growing thicker and thicker as they continued to push forward.

The area was starting to look a bit more familiar, even though he'd only been here that one time, drawn by the noise of Rei and Yume in their spar on that day which would bump him into those two low lives that were attempting to steal the egg, then lastly the mother griffin herself. "But I do wonder just what other types of exotic beasts there are around here and out in the rest of the world. I've only lived two places in my who life, so I can't wait till we are allowed to venture out to other places on mission from the school. " There could be seen a bit of a glimmer in the youth's bright blue eyes that seemed to lack any pupil to them, he was truthful as he'd only lived in the sole spirit realm for most of his life and then had abruptly ended up here after his father had sent him through a space-time tunnel. Part of him couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the Spirit Saint after he had sent him away back then. Ziv tried not to dwell on things he knew he couldn't find the answer to right now as the two students broke through some brush finding themselves on a bit of a clearing that overlooked a portion of the valley below as other mountain peaks could be seen off to the other side. "Just what kind of fight happened between you and that girl from the other house?"

He knew why he recognized this place now, after looking down the steep sloped hill off to their left side he could see the scars of battle where the three of them had engaged the bandits in battle who had been attempting to relieve the nest of its egg not too far away from here. One could only say that it was the last mistake that ever made, thankful it also didn't end in the same manner for the others. He paused for a moment as he looked at the clearing and back down into the bottom of the hill again, "I came around that way and those two bandits seemed to have come from that peak over there." Looking across the clearing now the boy raised his tiny hands up with the index finger extended fully towards the next peak over from them. "Meaning I can only assume that they had descended from there before they ran into Rei and yourself." The same hand came up as he brought it to his lips in thought, "What do you think the best way to approach it?"

874 + 1375 = 2249 words

[Trusted Grader]

Yume thought back to the situation, his mind barely comprehending how his body was stable enough to take him through it, making him doubt that he was able to pull it off twice, but if Ziv believed in him then there had to be a reason for it right? Yume looked over at his shadow, who stood just like him, hunched over covering his head, he nodded at Yume, telling him to believe in himself. Fine, no time to be scared. The Dreamer looked over at Ziv and smiled, he didn't want to portray that the weights were getting to him, which made him wonder how strong the boy actually was, for the ones he first tried outweighed these by nearly double.

"I don't know, I think it would be best if we approached it head-on, so if we spot Mamma then at least we can appear more friendly than last time. Sneaking around would probably send the wrong message." Yume wasn't really sure about his own answer, his stomach churned at the thought of having to face the beast yet again, but with his shadow and hoverboard about he did feel somewhat safer, as if his brother would take care of the situation, besides, with the strong look-alike next to him he felt safe, what could go wrong right?

"After you!" Yume reached out and pointed towards the slide, figuring that the front approach would probably be the best. The weights helped him train his endurance, for if it was just a regular jog then at least at this point he would just start to feel the motions taxation kick in, but with the weights, it was a different ballgame, he was already building up a sweat, but it was good, that was the point.

"The boy has an obsessive need to please others in order to feel at home, I, I, I don't think he should be hanging around Ziv, Yume will influence him to do bad deeds. That boy is fragile and needs tender care, not frivolous activities." Warui cast Yume's files over his desk as he looked over at Hozok.

"And that's where I think you are wrong. I think that Ziv hasn't had a real friend in a long time. From our reports, it seems that he has spent a long time living in the spirit realm, so he probably hasn't had a human friend around his age for who knows how long. I think that—"

"—Yeah well I think that Ziv is on his way to becoming a brilliant student but he can't be skipping classes and mucking about with Yume and Rei, she's a wild one." Warui wasn't fond of Rei, especially since she had been avoiding going to her therapy sessions.

"Focus on Ziv and Yume, I think they will do well together. Give it some time, if I'm wrong then we separate the two of them, deal?" Hozok leaned back as he finished puffing on his home-rolled cigar.

"I'll give it six months, if they crash and burn before that I'll put them in separate houses."

Yume finished sliding once he reached the base, he could tell from the tears where he and Rei had fought, he could even see the scar left on the tree from Slither. He shook his head then turned to face Ziv and smiled. "After you." Yume rotated his right shoulder to jiggle his sword, meaning that he was ready to fight if needed, the weights wouldn't really slow him down once the adrenaline kicked in, of that he was sure of. Let's just make sure that we don't run into her... please. He didn't want to say it out loud due to him not wanting to jinx it.

---

623/600 +1 Endurance.

[Zao]

"Head on, you think?" While Ziv did want to see the beast up close, he was more so interested in seeing the griffin eggs, if they could avoid the beast all together that would obviously be for the best, yet he doubted that the mama would be going too far from her egg after what had just happened before with the two bandits. The white-haired kid stopped atop the clearing upon which Rei and Yume had been fighting upon that day, his hand seemed to subconsciously lift itself from its natural resting position at his right side and the tips of the fingers touched his lips just slightly in thought. "Perhaps your idea does have some merit. If we want to try and establish any type of positive relationship with the griffin than I do suppose that attempting to sneak around its nest like some type of criminal's would give it the wrong impression for sure." And that was the last thing they boys wanted to do, after all an angry momma griffin was not something they wanted to be chased down by today. Taking that moment to rest he brought his focus back into the present now as his friend offered him the opportunity to go first, his bright blue eyes following the pointed motion of his fellow student to see the slide marks that ran down the hill, like a set of large crocodile slides on the bank of a river. Just how far had those two tumbled down this hill in their little skirmish, perhaps it was more of a fight than just a little skirmish. All the young man knew was that the female from the other house, Rei, was quite the firecracker you might say and from the brief encounters with her since that time she seemed to be the one who was always ready for a fight with a rather short temper to boot.

Exhaling slowly, the fifth year circulated some chakra throughout his body and down into the soles of his feet before he lifted his pupil-less eyes towards his friend and smiled, to him this looked like it could be fun as he finally gave a nod and bent at both knees before leaping forward landing the soles of his ninja style sandals down firmly on the soft earth that acted almost like a slide with the chakra being pushed under his feet. Perhaps one could have compared it to a form of surfing or skying as he shot down the hill side and his arms came up on either side of the body attempting to stabilize himself during the maneuver. While he wasn't doing too bad as the gravity on him from the weights he wore increased the speed of his body as it flew down the downhill slope, it was about halfway down that he started to lose control, not use to the added weight of the level three weights that he'd chosen and his balanced started to fade and his body wobbled back and forth. After that point it was all downhill, no pun intended, as his feet eventually slipped from beneath his weight and the robed youth ended up on his backside, still sliding down the last portion of the overturned earth from both Yume and Rei, not to mention the battle that followed afterwards between them, Ziv and the two bandits...that wasn't even accounting for the angry griffin that showed up at the end. But despite the rather frightening experience that he had on that day, he found himself subconsciously drawn to learn more about the griffin species, perhaps part of it drew from his own family linage or perhaps it was just an interest from a young boy still learning about the world.

"Haha..." A nervous laugh escaped the boy's thin lips as he spun around on the ground, finally sliding to a stop as it was kind of fun but at the same time slightly embarrassing. Even so, this beat just setting in class, it was fulfilling the need or perhaps the desire that resided within him that wanted to be out exploring and adventuring. Shaking his head, the spiky white hair shook from side to side before falling back into place and he used his hands to return back to a standing position followed by him dusting the dirt off his backside as he looked up to see how his friend was managing on his second attempt down the hill, at least this time Yume wasn't falling with Rei attached to him like the previous time.

762 + 2249 = 3011 words - 5 strength Training from 1st Quarter event.

[Trusted Grader]

Yume was safe, his twin Yami was still having the time of his life, the winds blew his dark hair as he zipped through the shadowy forest, zoom, the hoverboard released a sound that reverberated at least a kilometer away. Yume and his brother had hoped that the sound of the hoverboard would trigger the mother to go after it if anything, unless it had the opposite effect. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Yume slowly stopped walking to take a deep breath, he wasn't sure about this, his body told him that it was dangerous but his mind assured him that it was safe.

Yet, he trembled like a leaf in the wind, he grabbed his left arm to calm his nerves as he had become quite stronger since he was here last time but he still knew that it was not enough. Not yet. The aspiring aviator looked at his friend and smiled. "Let's just hope that we are lucky and don't have to deal with either this time." Yume nodded towards the cliffside that would take them to the nest. "Are you sure about this?" Yume asked one last time before he would rush up the wall, he was sure that Ziv would stubbornly say that they should check on the nest, and so they were.

He felt how his muscles would tense and relax as each step pounced on the ground, tendons fighting not only against the added weight but now also against gravity for the boy was zooming up the wall, it seemed that he wanted to finish this as soon as possible, especially while his head was still clear and not filled with fear. "Woohooo!!" Yami shouted, causing the nearby crows to spring to life and fly away in a flock that crackled along their path. ”Did you hear that?” Yume stopped and listened for the echo, he looked over where he believed Yami would be but he had never heard him make a noise before, so perhaps he had run into someone?

The bold trainee stopped and scratched his head, he wasn't sure whether or not he should even be out here and now he was hearing noises where Yami should be, ”I... Look, we should hurry this up.” Yume turned towards the nest and spotted it peak out between the undergrowth and massive root system, it required one to come from a certain angle or have knowledge of the Griffins to even know of the location, luckily, or perhaps unluckily they knew where it was.

---

424

[Zao]

With the two of them together Ziv followed his nod as he too was looking towards the cliffside a bit up the way from them, this had been where the two bandits had leaped down from, and it was only natural for the two of them to assume that the nest of the griffin's lay either at the top of the cliff or further up the mountain somewhere. "Let's hope not." The white-haired youth only confirmed the words of his friend, they were pushing the limits of their own capabilities by coming here with just the two of them, but in the kid's mind that was only a what if; a what if the griffin mama was hovering around the nest. If it was just the eggs then it would be a quick and simple trip, where Ziv could spend a little bit of time investigating the nest and the eggs, perhaps grab a few feathers from the griffin as a souvenir of their little escapade, one of hopefully many more to come for Yume, Yami, and himself. But who really knew what fate or destiny laid in wait for either of the young student's future at this point in their lives. When asked if he was sure about this, the last confirmation from his friend before they would start their climb up the cliffside, he paused for a moment to think. Part of him thought about the danger but the other part of him thought about the excitement to, and they had already come this far, to turn around now would have meant that all this traveling to get here through the forest from the school grounds would have just been wasted time. Yes, he was ready to follow through and climb. "I'm sure, we'll just take a quick peak."

Ziv tried to sound reassuring as he mentioned that they'd only take a quick peak after reaching the top, the destination which he hoped contained the griffin nest and the revered griffin eggs within it. Taking a moment to adjust the weights on his ankles, ensuring their tightness, then strapping the fingerless gloves a bit tighter that he was wearing, the fifth year student was ready and took his position at the base of the cliff face right beside his so-called twin due to their similar appearances, placing his right hand almost as high as he could reach to grip a small ledge as his bright blue gaze swept across the rockface from his feet to several meters above him trying to decide the best climbing path to take. Though this was probably the first time he'd ever really tried to climb any type of mountain-like structure, thinking back about the elephant spirit realm he spent most of his childhood in the landscape was pretty flat, not because the realm didn't have hills or small mountains, but due to the size of the spirits and their desire to show off their own strength many features were smashed and flattened during their battles or during training. Being like an ant to some of the elephant warriors there, Ziv didn't really get to create such landscape changing fights because of that size difference.

He looked over to his left to see Yume, giving him a confident smile and nodding to him to give the last confirmation that they were doing this thing, before he lifted his left leg and found a decent foot hold. One limb moved at a time as the slow ascent began, ensuring that he was able to keep at least three points of contact with the stone face at all times for safety, for the time being he refused to use any chakra to aide himself as he wished to truly work on training his body. The student believed that one needed both a strong body and a strong chakra pool to be able to thrive as a shinobi, this was a mixture of the teaching from the elephant spirits and his father blending together to form the direction he would begin his true journey as an aspiring ninja. On the journey over, the jog and sliding down the hillside he had noticed the resistance that the second level weights put on his body, but it honestly hadn't been anything to challenging, at least up until now. Each movement was forced to be slow and precise, as his body was at least twice as heavy as normal and as he pushed up with a single leg or used a single arm to pull his new body weight up the not quite vertical slope, it causes his muscles to burn and the tendons in his wrists, hands, ankles, and feet to hurt. Ziv wasn't at his limit, but the slow burn was beginning to work its way there as the pair continued to climb, one meter at a time, slowly climbing higher and higher from the base of the cliff face.

Ziv's slower place allowed for Yume to easily pull ahead of him, and while the pair was in a bit of a hurry the boy didn't want to mess up and fall down the cliffside either due to the additional weight that his body was carrying at the moment. About halfway up the side of this cliff a strange echoing sound could be heard from the wood line that both the boys' backs were facing, it almost sounded like a person or perhaps an owl. Whatever it was it had been loud enough to echo all the way through the thick forest area to them, it even causing the youth to tense up a bit as he turned and looked out across the tops of the trees, this being how high they had made it so far, to see if he could fight out or see what the culprit of the sound was. But all he could see was the group of crows that had been startled by the sound flying up through the canopy of the forest off in the distance a bit. From above he heard his friend call down to him and he shook his head to confirm, "Yes, but what was that?" At this point he didn't even know that the shadowy twin of his friend was capable of make noise or sounds so he had no idea or thought that it could have been Yami out making all the racket.

"Yes, let's hurry up." He couldn't help but agree with his friend at this point that perhaps it would be better for them to hurry up, but up until this point he hadn't been able to see any signs of the nest or its location. "Can you see the nest yet?" He called up as he began to push his own body a bit harder in order to climb faster than he had previously. Hopefully the nest wasn't too much higher, being this high already made it very, very difficult if they needed to make a quick getaway due to being this high on a near vertical slope...

11 + 1176 = 1187 words - strength training

[Trusted Grader]

Yume swallowed hard, fighting to keep the facade of a courageous boy but he knew he was threading on deep waters, the mama Griffin could be anywhere and they were now hearing things from Yami's location, Ziv hadn't been as confident as Yume wished but once he saw that he had chosen to climb the wall free based instead of using chakra, so would Yume. He would lean against the wall and then would grip with his hands first followed by placing his feet on two protruding edges, he was now set to climb the wall like his new friend. "No idea, I never got the chance to see the nest, Yami and I were busy saving Rei's skin to ever get close to it."

Oh how he oversimplified things for his own benefit, the proud boy pushed up next to Ziv, stopping only once they were able to spot the nest between the heavy root system. ”I... think that's the nest.” Yume reached with his left hand and pointed at the nest, he looked over at Ziv who was masked by the light that shone through the canopy. I really hope he knows what he is doing... Or else. Yume looked back down which was a mistake, Let's make sure we don't fall now. He chuckled then looked over where he thought Yami would be.

The shadowy twin slipped past two trees that appeared to either be leaning off each other or for the adult mind they looked like two canines going at it, Yami kick-flipped the hoverboard and landed hard on some wet mud, nearly slipping before he regained his balance. A subtle chuckle left his breath but was interrupted by a loud screech that not only caught his attention but would caught the two climbing boys, it was a screech that signaled that Mamma was near so they either had to hurry up or trust their instincts in order to make it out of this ordeal in one piece.

See, the boys hadn't called on any backup and had been explicitly warned not to go near the nest again, meaning that they were truly on their own. Yami pounded his chest to kick start his heart, he needed to be brave and face the griffin to save his friends, with a quick exhale he picked up the pace, causing the hoverboard to sound louder, throwing the echoes further way as he himself zoomed towards where he had heard the original screech, he was coming for blood, whether she liked it or not, the worst part was that no one would be witness to see it all. ”The Shadow Bandit strikes again.” Yami chuckled as the wind kicked his hair.

---

452

[Zao]

Soon both of the young kids were standing almost side by side one of the protruding edges of the cliff face that allowed for each of them to rest their arm muscles, Ziv lightly shaking his arms out letting the fresh blood and oxygen circulate through both arm and his legs in the moment, exhaling a long, slow breath as little beads of sweat could be seen on his face. Leaning his back against the rockface he turned and glanced down shaking his head slightly, hopefully they wouldn't get caught at the wrong time in the wrong place on the side of this mountain. "Oh?" Hearing Yume's words he couldn't help but turn his head up and to the right where he could see the protruding large roots. "Could it be?"

If it really was the nest then they were much closer than he thought, since they didn't know exactly where the nest was or even what a real griffin nest looked like, his friend's assumption was as good as anyone's at this point with where they were on the edge of this cliff face. Ziv gave a gentle smile, maybe they were going to actually be able to get a look at those griffin eggs without any trouble. Yet, the next sound was something that was edged in the back of his mind for all time. The powerful screech tore through the area, it was the same as before when the group of fifth year students managed to fend of some bandits in almost this exact same spot when they attempted to take a single egg from the nest on this cliff.

His right hand that had reached up to grip the lip of a rock when he was looking upward squeezed tightly on the hard surface, his knuckles turning white as the griffin's screech caused him to tremble slightly out of fear that they had been caught red handed. The bright blue eyes of the youth snapped back out towards the skyline but to his relief didn't see the winged beast descending down upon them like his worst thoughts had believed. But just because the mama wasn't here yet didn't mean she wouldn't be there in the near future. Ziv had to make a choice, it would probably still take a few minutes to finish climbing up to what they thought was the griffin nest, then they would still need to also begin their descent back into the canopy below and escape.

Perhaps if he had just been here by himself, the young kid would have thought about risking it to get just a peak at those eggs that he so badly wanted to see and study. But now that it was Yume and him both here with Yami out somewhere in the distance, the risk just seemed too high. So, despite his own desires he made the mental decision that they could attempt this another time. "Yume, as much as I want to see if that's the nest. We should probably head back down..." Ziv was recalling the last encounter, and at that time they had been on solid ground, and he believed that there would always be another time as long as the Avian house continued to protect and revere this winged beast.


1187 + 547 = 1734

[Trusted Grader]

With each climb, he felt his muscles growing tired but his confidence growing stronger somehow, perhaps because he was conquering his fear, that's what he wished it was at least, so no matter how hard it was with the added weights Yume still pushed on. The aptitude test had taught him a valuable lesson in not giving up, you never knew when you were about to reach the finish, so up he climbed. He grabbed onto a thick root, pulling his head out of the way as dirt fell down the 45-meter drop, he waved his white hair out the way before he let out a chuckle that was responded with an echoing Griffin Screech.

Yume stopped for a second to think, his heart was racing, Yami was the first thing that came to his thoughts before Ziv began to speak. He turned to face him and then looked over at the eggs. "No, we are so close now, Yami is already out there risking his life, it can't be for nothing you know, or he will be pissed.” Yume pushed himself up and continued to climb until he could jump down on a small pathway that would lead them to the Griffin egg, the path was small so even the children would have to duck a little, though it was wide enough for both to make their way.

"You'd think that the path would be wider for a Griffin, but perhaps it's for the children, Mamma and big bro seem to fly in from there.” Yume pointed at the opening that gave way to light that shone through the cracks and revealed the Griffin nest, the eggs were there and the family didn't seem to be that far away, so whatever Ziv had planned he would have to do it now. "There you go, now hurry, I got your back... I think.” Yume unsheathed Slither and loaded Fang bullet but didn't trigger it yet, he wasn't even sure if he was going to fight the damn thing or run.

I don't even have my hoverboard with me... I hope Yami is okay. Yami was far from okay.

Dodging the bites and swipes the shadowy twin was no longer having fun for the Griffin seemed to remember the hoverboard, the question was now whether if it would remember the real owner. Yami couldn't care less about Yume at the moment, he swerved and dodged fallen trees alike, making sure to keep himself and the Griffin on a path that was clear of any travelers or hikers as he didn't want to endanger them because Yume and Ziv wanted to do something terribly stupid.

---

443

[Zao]

Ziv ducked his head to the side as the dirt from above him fell down on his shoulders and ultimately all the way down the rockface below them, it seemed that his partner in crime had already made up his mind at this point. "Yami must be crazier than you are, hah." The boy forced out a light laugh to his friend's response, sometime the white-haired kid wasn't sure who was the troublemaker of the two of them, Yume or his twin Yami. "Let's do this!" The boy's body turned as he swung around, switching grips with his hands now that he was facing the stone face and looked up to his friend above, reaching up with his left hand he found a hand and foot hold for himself and began to once more ascend. The adrenalin that was running through his body helped him to shrug off the sluggishness that had been building in his muscles from the extra weight that he'd been carrying around with him on this physical event.

"I'm going in then; it shouldn't take me but a minute or to!" With those words as his friend was unsheathing his weapons, the blue eyed fifth year grabbed ahold of two of the thick roots that hung down the side of the opening and used them almost like springs to toss himself upwards as he rolled into the opening through the mess of vines and other vegetation that helped to conceal the nest from onlookers. Who would have thought that the griffins would be so well adapted to hiding their own nest from others. In the dimly lit platform that seemed to almost have been carved out with claws and other tools the small kid found himself in front of a large nest that measured at least five meters across with three large eggs inside that stood each around a meter in size.

Feeling at least somewhat secure with his friend having his back at the moment, Ziv flipped his hand summoning a small scroll that opened up being suspended in the air via chakra threads of his right hand as the left hand produced a pen. Rapidly he began to write out several notes about the dimensions of the nest, what it was constructed out of, the size, shape and color pattern of the eggs themselves. This took the man only about a minute before he flipped his wrist storing both of the items away and then he took a step up into the nest itself, there he collected a few of the different sized feathers and whatever else he could grab in the fifteen to twenty seconds that he spent up there and then did the same as before storing those items away for later investigation when it was safer back at the school. "That should be it, how are we looking?" Bending at the knees he leaps up slightly in order to clear the lip of the nest as he landed firmly back on the rock ledge just behind his friend in arms who was looking out of the vegetation that concealed the nest from the outside world. "Hopefully that crazy twin of yours isn't doing anything to crazy."

535 + 1734 = 2269 Words

[Trusted Grader]

Yume wasn't exactly comfortable standing here by the edge, not because he was afraid of heights, no, he had already conquered that fear once he learned how to run on air, no, it was the feeling of uncomfortableness he got when he stood next to the nest, his body felt ready to fight but his mind knew that he stood no chance. Damn it, I hope Ziv is fast! Yume held the sword in hand as he peered over the edge, the long fall was a bit intimidating but the view was majestic, if he was reborn then he wouldn't complain if he was reborn as a Griffin with this view. He looked up from the ground and up to the clearing before he heard some noise behind him, the bushes rustled for a second, causing him to think that it was his companion.

"That went a little faster than expected." Yume rested Slither on his right shoulder as he looked back at the noise, unaware that something was heading his way fast.

Yami continued to dodge the bites, cursing under his breath as he wondered why he had ever agreed to do this? Right! Because I can go two dimensions! But... If I do that then Mamma Griffin will lose focus and go back to the nest! Damn it. Yami continued to dodge the strikes as he gripped a tree to sling himself in another direction, he thought back to the aptitude test and to the day Yume was given the hoverboard as a gift, how he had wanted to train with it and now he found himself in a do or die situation without ever getting the chance to truly work out the kinks. Bad idea. Yami cursed yet again as he continued to zoom through the forest, he had seen Yume escape the beast so he figured that he would be able to as well.

Once Ziv would clear the gap and speak to Yume he would spot that his comrade was wrapped by a large green snake, its massive maw prepared to snatch Yume's head if Ziv struggled. "You can stop right there friend." The green-haired magician stepped out of the bushes, his cloak immediately gave away that he was an Aguin and his ring revealed that he was at least one year above them. "You know, you Avians are so predictable, let me guess, you came back here to check up on the eggs to see if they were still there right?" If Ziv looked clearly then he would see that the snake had wrapped itself around his mouth so Yume couldn't speak.

"You can go right ahead back there and pick up one of those eggs for me or I'll toss your friend over the edge here. He won't die but he'll be injured for sure." Yagami chuckled as he lifted his right arm which the giant snake was attached to, dangling Yume over the edge, Ziv wouldn't be fast enough to both attack Yagami and save Yume so he would have to be careful with his next move, would he comply and go against Avian rules to save his friend? Attack his enemy and trust that Yume could save himself or would he find another way?

Yagami chuckled as his left hand revealed the wand that was resting on his hip, if Ziv had any insight yet and paid any attention in class then he would know that wands allowed the users to cast jutsu without the need to form hand seals. Meaning that he with his puppets Ziv would most likely have to deal with someone who could fight multiple people with ease, Ziv and Yume got the rare opportunity to peer into the future, they got to see what a capable Fourth Year Student looked like, although this one too seemed to lack a grimoire.

"You know, we are lucky that they haven't run into trouble with any Fourth Year Students, because I can bet you bottom ryo that these two knuckleheads would be the first ones to end up in a fight they probably couldn't win! Hell! They have already done it once!" Warui sighed as he looked over at Hozok who shrugged.

"I think you give these kids too little credit, I see them as the next generation, one that seems to learn from their parents' mistakes."

"That's brave of you to think, let's hope you are right."

"Let's hope..." Hozok peered out the window as he took a sip of his juice.

---

754+ 1319 = 2073

[Zao]

Ziv hadn't quite cleared the vegetation when he spoke a moment earlier but when there wasn't a follow up response, he lifted his bright eyes to find a truly unexpected seen, a massive jade color snake had coiled itself around Yume, almost as though it was planning to eat the slender framed kid, but the length of the snake's body seemed wrong as it stretched off into a nearby bush. The fifth year was frozen for a moment at the scene as an unfamiliar voice floated through the air and into his ears in that moment drawing his attention to the green haired magician who had just revealed himself. Even as a newbie to the Sky Reach academy, the boy's thoughts began to quickly put together the information in front of him as the cloak and snake pretty much summed things up for the white-haired student. 'He's an Aguin!' When the teachers had spoken to the students about the revered (for the Avian) griffins and the priceless eggs they laid here on these cliffs, it was spoken that the eggs were sought out by many, and not just for the baby griffins within.

No, those eggs contained special chakra that could be used as an ingredient in a number of mid-to-high level potions, making anyone who was able to acquire one, without dying, quite the pretty Ryo for even a single one. It was of course obvious at this point that he was here for an egg, even before he continued to speak as Ziv didn't dare to move a muscle at this point. The snide remark from the upper classman put a rather sour looking face on the normally content face of the young Saisuko, but he didn't refute the point as he was trying to formulate something of a plan that could help his friend. This man was willing to put not just a random person's health and potentially life endanger for a single egg, but that of a fellow student. The new kids hadn't been there long enough to understand the differences in the houses and the unspoken rules of the school, there would be danger in all parts of life and so the school allowed this to an extent but Ziv was having his eyes opened up to the habit of thought that he was going to have to develop in order to not only progress but potentially survive in the walls of the academy. "I'll get it for you." Left with no other option, the boy put his head down and spoke in a low voice, feeling partly defeated at being caught in this situation.

The strong would always pray upon the weak, that was the nature of the world and something that he remembered learning within the elephant spirit realm, the strong there had the right to rule, who wanted to follow someone who was weaker than themselves, after all? Turning around on the narrow ledge he had stepped down onto the from the nest before seeing the situation that Yume was in Ziv reached up and grabbed hold the thick hanging roots. Again, he used his own strength to slowly ascend back to the edge just before the concealed nest, being careful not to fall or stumble as he ducked back inside the hidden nest. Taking a few steps inside he paused, looking at the nest and the set of eggs that were contained quietly within, unprotected because of the two of them and the shadow twin at the moment. But the choice was easy for the boy, while he wanted to protect the eggs, the life of his 'brother' was worth way more than even such a priceless egg, yet that didn't mean he was going to hand it over to the bully that easily as his hands made two sets of hand seals. The first produced two long metal spikes of black metal that fell into the right hand as the other caused for chakra threads to extend just slightly from the tip of each finger.

'It could work.' First and foremost, he needed to figure out how to free his friend and create a distraction for his friend to maneuver to safety. Chakra threads from the right hand connected to both of the metal spikes that were only about a foot long as he reached down into the nest taking a single large egg into his left hand via the chakra strings of that hand, causing for it to levitate over to the palm of the hand which Ziv then took a light hold of with both hands concealing the threads and the two metal spikes behind the large egg. It was definitely a risk, but he also understood that even in his bound state one couldn't count out the resourcefulness of his friend either, plus the fellow magician didn't know anything about him either so perhaps that would give him the upper hand in that moment of surprise. No one really knew how things would play out until it actually happened, as no one could really see the future. 'No fate but what we make.' Steeling his mind and thoughts, the boy moved back from the nest and passed through the vegetation that hid it from prying eyes as he neared the edge to look down calling out to the pair below. "I've got it."

With that he appeared to bend down to place the egg near the edge as if preparing to climb down but as the edge touch the ground his right arm circled around and as it did the pair of black metal spikes shot downward with impressive strength (saying twenty strength at this point) one aimed for the chest of the green haired student and the other towards the large head of the matching green hue snake, just slightly below the jaw where the head connected to the spine of the creature. But what most likely couldn't be seen in that moment was the thing, translucent blue threads, five attached to each of the spikes as they shot downwards towards each of their intended target. One of the secret Suna techniques was about to get put on display today for the magician, though Ziv had no idea just how strong this guy was but the fighting prowess of Yume and him wasn't anything to scoff at either.

1062 + 2269 = 3331 words strength

[Trusted Grader]

Yagami chuckled and shook his head as Ziv complied, That was easy. Sheesh, I remember when I was a Fifth-Grader like you kid, at least then we tried to fight back, your buddy didn't seem to think that you could survive that fall, or perhaps believed that it's better to comply with the enemy. Let's see how that works." The snake magician gently stroked the buzz-cut sides of his hair, taking a step forward Yagami would flair with his tongue like a snake. "I guess you Avians really are the school clowns, no wonder you guys haven't had a headmaster in cycles." Yume tried to speak but his voice was muffled, causing the Aguin to sigh and move the snake away from his mouth. "Speak."

"I don't know who you are, but I would suggest—"

"—You will suggest nothing, be glad that you are allowed to even speak." Yagami pulled Yume closer and slapped him, his white cheek turned pinkish red, the smack was so hard that it forced Yume's left eye close for now, luckily due to harsh training the boy was able to tank the hit, and in fact did his best to mask the pain, grinning instead of sobbing the boy stared down the Aguin with contempt.

"Besides, once your brother or whoever the hell he was comes back, I'll let you go." Yagami nodded for himself, his whole demeanor gave off the essence that he was doing both Ziv and Yume a favor by letting them go as if it wasn't Orphanage policy that killing other students was strictly forbidden. Yagami looked down then at the white-haired boy before he let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry, that fall won't kill you. You'll probably break a couple of bones but you'll be fine, you are pretty tough."

"For you." Yume stopped speaking once he heard Ziv push the vegetation out of the way to reveal his return, words hadn't been shared between them yet as the stalemate was about to begin.

Yami slid under a fallen tree before he leaped off the hoverboard and transformed into a black crow that took flight, the hoverboard would follow him in a different trajectory while the Griffin Mama would tear down any tree or branch that stood in the path of its target. Yami was now her number one feast, even though he had left the hoverboard as planned. Shit! I have to get rid of this beast before she kills me! The shadowy twin cursed, his heart pounded so hard it shook his core, the very essence that kept him alive, if she managed to strike it then he was a goner, a fact he had never shared with Yume. "Leave me the hell alone!" The spirit twin was metaphorically sweating bullets as he continued to fly between branches in order to slow Mama down.

"Don't do anything stupid now." Yagami tilted his head as he inspected Ziv, he looked at him carefully as he planted the egg near the edge, an action that got the Fourth Year Student to smirk but when Ziv attempted to attack him he would leap to the left and slide 5 meters, dodging the blade aimed at his chest while the one aimed at the snake managed to nick it by the neck, though if Ziv took careful notice then he would spot that his attack only managed to remove some of its scales, indicating that they were indeed facing someone powerful.

Yume seized the opportunity and pressed himself free, he ran in the air and performed a backflip as he cut the snake's wound as he went around, he would immediately flip and slid next to Ziv if he could but the massive gap between them forced Yume to leap on to a suspended branch for now, Yume would currently have the high ground while Ziv would be located 10 meters to the left of Yagami, the green hair magicians focus wasn't entirely on Yume as he was solely here for the egg. "We have protected the egg once, we can do it again." Yume brandished his blade as he finished his little rally speech, he didn't trigger the explosion when he flipped due to him not wanting to harm himself, luckily that bullet wasn't his only trick up his sleeve, he had saved this next one for such an occasion.

With quick thinking the Anguin took a deep breath as Yume triggered Fang, causing Ki Sabre to cover his blade and give it some additional length, Yume was deadlocked on fighting Yagami if Ziv was, for together they would be able to accomplish anything they set their minds on. The smoke would at first cover their field of view, appearing like a shimmering rainbow white colored smog that had a sweet scent to it, at first it didn't irritate the boy's throats but after a short while breathing it in would start to burn a little and cause them to have a coughing fit if they stuck around.

The snake, on the other hand, would snap at all the threads that Yagami failed to spot with his eyes but the snake's eyes caught everything, with superior strength (30) the snake made short work of the threads and with no way of spotting Yagami currently, the Fourth-Grader went back into hiding, "Heh, not bad young one, but you will regret that, in about... 30 seconds?" Yume coughed as he leaped out of the Tsukiton field as he recognized it for what it was, he had seen it before in Hitogakure and had managed to get a small whiff of it but never this much.

"Get out of the smoke now!" Yume climbed up then crawled on all fours then began to move up the root system, he knew that he didn't want to be anywhere near the fall when the Tsukiton hit and depending on the strength of the poison the duo could be in for one hell of a trip, hopefully their will training was strong enough to resist the poisoning.

---

1011 + 2073 = 3084

[Zao]

'Fast and strong...' The youth was able to see from his full strength throw of the two long metal spikes, that the green haired upper classman was a bit faster than he first thought and as for the massive green snake. His metal spike impacted at full power and barely had the capability to even break off a few scales, which meant that the snake held him in no regard and didn't both expending energy that it would have taken to move or dodge the outright attack from Ziv. This was truly troublesome as he had hoped for better results than what occurred. Just as the weapons did their work, for better or worse, the white haired fifth year drew his hands apart as he unattached the chakra threads from the two spikes they had previously been attached to and then attempted to attach them to each of his targets, splitting his concentration to do so. 'Got them!' It was successful, at least in the first moment as the snake easily broke free of the threads and even had the awareness to see that Ziv was trying to get hold of its master, just what kind of sensory ability of its environment did this reptile have? 'It noticed them!?'

Even the boy was questioning what he saw happen in only a few seconds as he had tried to restrain the serpent with his control (20) only to find that it was as if it held no sway on the moments of the predator as it used its body's raw strength to separate from the strings as Ziv pulled back hard on them combining his own chakra control and strength. 'Such raw strength!' He couldn't help but to exclaim to himself as he tried to shift his bright blue eyes onto the green haired man, but the snake had come to his owner's rescue but attacking the strings before he could use them for his own benefit. 'Is he a companion master?' Ziv only made this personal reference due to his father's own reputation as the 'Spirit Saint' in which the man had tamed multiple different spirit companions over his life that each wielded their own extraordinary powers, making him quite the foe if someone wanted to try him head on. Was this person who had the same mentality that they relied on strong companions to aid them in battle or perhaps he was just as strong on his own. At this point neither of the boy's truly knew anything substantial about the fellow classman except for he was at least a year above them and was here for one of the griffin eggs.

Ziv felt the need to regroup with Yume, who had managed to take advantage of the situation that he caused to free himself from the serpent's coil as it had been forced to deal with the attack from the boy and the chakra threads that had also tried to ensnare its owner. Stepping off the side of the cliff the chakra flowed into each of his feet, and they stuck to the rock wall just like he was standing on the ground as he slid across the steep rockface now ending up about five meters above his comrade. But before they could mount a combined attack a cloud of rainbow-colored smoke erupted between them and the two from the opposing house, what was this? This was a first for the boy as he'd never seen anything like this as it quickly washed over him, though it didn't seem to do anything at first but have a strangely sweet smell to it. But he began to move even before hearing the words from his friend, knowing that something this weird looking probably wasn't something either of them should be standing within. Though he had only been exposed for a few moments before the white-haired student quickly back pedaled out of the multicolored smoke, he could feel his through being irritated.

Coughing lightly into one hand his chakra threads reached into his back pouch touching a scroll of his as a pair of smoke clouds appeared, one in front of him just outside the smoke that was now ten meters away from Ziv and another about five meters above his head and off the cliff face. The large wooden dragon puppet was summoned above him as the armored suit puppet was summoned in front of him as chakra threads from the respected hands connected to each as he finished coughing a few times into his hand. "What was that cloud, Yume?!" He called over to his friend who seemed to understand what the smoke cloud had been. Currently unable to see either the snake or its owner, the boy waited on the defensive.

3331 + 794 = 4124 words

[Trusted Grader]

Ziv managed to pull the snake with his impressive strength, but quickly feel the snake yank back at a greater strength, showing that there was room for him to manipulate the movement of the snake but he would have to be careful not to pull himself. Yagami slipped out of the smoke and began to laugh, for now, the egg seemed to be safe but due to the dynamic duo clearing the smoke zone its life would be left up to fate, for what was about to come would keep the boys distracted for the time being.

"It's something called Tsukiton, it's a custom poison type that is supposed to make your mind go crazy or something, I don't know, I just helped S.O.F... Nothing." Yume wasn't sure if he was allowed to talk about his mercenary business, even to his very first friend, Damn.... iii.... wha Yume had fortunately followed Ziv's action and jumped to the wall, but as he ran towards the ground he felt his legs feel wavy as his head began to "float", each step felt lighter than the previous and soon shadows began to breathe, while the air tasted fresher.

"I.... I... Watch out!" Yume struck at an incoming blue and white shadow emerging out of the ether, his blade tore the faceless clone in half, causing it to splatter into a heap of wet snakes that slathered around, creating a disgusting sensation down their throats, even though the snakes didn't touch them. "Eeeeeyyyy yooooooo" Yume slipped and felt how he was sliding down a rainbow slide towards a new universe, while in real life he fell about 20 meters, if he hadn't noticed it at the last second then he wouldn't even have blocked the fall.

His left arm shattered in two places, around the center on both his radius and ulna bones, fortunately, the Tsukiton was so powerful that he felt nothing, in fact, the bleeding boy just sat up and began to giggle as the colors of the world shifted and altered, he was zooming throughout the universe. "What even going ooooooon maaaaan! Hahah. Wow!" Yume leaned back and crashed on the "soft" ground and looked up at the neon-flicking skies that revealed everything and nothing at once, setting the boys imagination ablaze as it revealed how powerful the Ziv and Yume were in the future, he got to witness them fight monsters and villains alike, so he stayed there drifting in the mental stories for a moment, forgetting all about his twins struggle with mamma, luckily Yami was still driving her away from them and would take a few moments before he got there.

What was worse was that Ziv would see more blue and white clones come after Yume at 25 speed/strength, these mental clones would do the same as the one he struck, try to attack and then just split into a mound of wet snakes that grossed you out, while the rest of the world made you laugh, Ziv was welcomed into insanity, a world where the got to see who he really was when he had no control of his body, his mind separated from spirit and both from the world.

[Zao]

"Tsukiton? Poison?" He really wasn't able to make out much past that as he yanked back on his strings that controlled his puppet, his body feeling not normal as he understood as he saw Yume headed to the ground that he should probably do the same. While he didn't understand what this poison gas was doing to his body, he knew that for sure he'd inhaled some and that it was fast acting, but he didn't personally know a lot about poisons, that would have been his father's thing. Pulling his hands back as his fingers curled helped to position the puppets between him and the smoke as he rapidly began to descend downwards as it felt like his feet were slipping and the rock was almost soft. "What the...?" He had no idea that the poison was already beginning to affect his cognitive functions and motor skills, the puppets moved almost erratically as he fumbled and missed a step as he was trying to get to the ground level, beginning to tumble but he managed to whip his hand around causing the dragon puppet to slip underneath him, catching him before the pair then careened downwards into the ground with a heavy crash causing him to lose control over both of his puppets.

His head ached as he regained his senses and tried to push up landing not far from where his comrade had, his blue eyes seemed to almost be glazed over for anyone that saw him as the world seemed to come in and out of focus, glancing to his left he spotted his comrade who was laying down, seemingly giggling? "Yume, get up...!" Suddenly as he went to take a step forward he saw something out of the corner of his eye, barely able to make his body move how he wanted the man twisted his upper body around and a sharp metal spike appeared in his hand as he thrust it out, expecting for it to be either the green haired magician or his pet snake, but it was blue and white. Its form looked almost humanoid in shape, but it lacked any defining features on its face or body. Like some strange clone that as the spike impaled straight through its chest it fell apart in a mass of small green snakes that looked slimy and disgusting to Ziv as he jumped back actually falling onto his backside because of his lack of coordination at the moment.

'Is it a clone...' The world was beginning to shift as the boy pushed himself onto his feet, unsteady but upright at least as he was a few steps closer to his friend who was still laying down on the ground, seemingly unable to hear the words the white-haired student had shouted at him moments earlier. His gaze lifted to the sky for some reason as he started to almost pulsate now, rapidly shifting colors as he had to look down at the ground as he was becoming nauseous from the trip he was beginning to spiral down upon. 'What...is...' His thoughts were becoming more sluggish as he attempted to fight back, though without any affect, against the strange visions that he was seeing and as he looked up from the wiggling grass and snakes he found a mass of those same blue and white clones from before starting to encircle Yume and himself. Gripping tightly onto the metal rod he was able to just barely manipulate his chakra into the black metal causing it to rapidly grow as he swung it like a baseball bat in a full circle smashing through a number of clones. Only to find them almost illusionary as they all split apart and spilled out numerous tiny green snakes onto the ground, at this point Ziv wasn't sure what was grass and what was snakes as he looked back up to see probably double the clone number from before popping up out of the ground like ants.

"I...I..." He stammered, unable to put even the simplest of words together in that moment, his arms fell limp as the clones rushed him at once and seemed to pile on him as the world instantly went black, in that space and time it felt like his soul or spirit had been separated from his body. Ziv couldn't really describe the feeling of the place he found himself in as his eyes fluttered open everything seemed like some sort of dark void, floating within it he reached out with both of his hands but felt nothing, the sensation was the same with his feet. But it didn't feel like air, but not as thick as water, this mass of perhaps energy that he was within felt cold and gave him an almost numb feeling within his chest. "Where am I...?" He questioned himself aloud, causing the tiny voice to echo throughout the space, still not giving any real definition to the size of the space he was within. "Do you remember me?" A rather deep sounding voice reverberated through the space, the very sound of it shook the boy to the core. He didn't recognize the voice as anyone he had every met in his life but something about it gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

"You...you sound familiar." Ziv couldn't help but to reply back to the void, unsure of where or whom the voice belonged to, but suddenly a single focused light illuminated from above him as his body seemed to naturally descend downward until he touched the inky black surface of something causing for small ripples to form at his feet. Off in the distance about five meters away another similarly downward facing spotlight turned on but nothing was within its light. A gentle tapping could be heard, the sound of footsteps walking through a puddle was what it sounded like as two golden eyes suddenly flashed open from within the darkness, no form of the stranger could be seen only the glow of the bright yellow eyes...

4124 + 1007 = 5131 words strength

[Trusted Grader]

Yume blinked and for a brief second he found himself almost sober, his mind wandered to what had just happened, why was he lying on the ground looking up at the clearing, the nest wasn't visible from his current position, nor would he be able to see clear the smoke anyway, but the question remained. What happened... I... TSUKITON! Yume pushed himself up to a seated position, a feat easier said than done when your body was going numb, but through great struggle and high will, the boy pushed himself to sit up. All his muscle fibres both relaxed and tensed up as he tried to focus on getting his electrons to fire up properly, his mind both zooming in and out of the past, present, and future to get a sense of the fixed world around him.

From here he noticed that his rainbow-colored blood was seeping down his left arm, What's going on over here? Yume looked at his arm but stopped once he spotted Ziv lying on the ground, at first he spotted him struggling against nothing until he seemingly just accepted it, Roll with it? That was a good way of dealing with Tsukiton, but due to them experiencing the effect differently and his adrenaline pushing him through a lot of the psychedelics the hero pushed himself up to stand, he reached out as his right arm bangled lit up and Slither made its way back to his hand. Grabbing the dancing sword, the boy felt his confidence rise as a fire lit up within his chest, his heart pounded as the shadows grew larger, and his pupils dilated as the world around him slowed down.

Resting the sword on his right shoulder the busted-up boy chuckled as he swore that he would protect his relaxed friend from the clones. "Don't you worry Ziv, me and Yami are going to... Where's Yami?" Yume looked around for his shadowy brother, seeing that he wasn't around had to mean that he was either away doing something important or perhaps Yume had forgotten to bring his brother along. But... Why? What could Yami possibly be doing that's more important than this? What even... What am I doing again? Right! Yume dodged the incoming strike and swiped down the clones that shattered into the green snakes, unlike Ziv Yume's Will was higher so they weren't able to overtake his mind but nevertheless, the wounded warrior was still being overwhelmed by the endless barrage of snake men.

One after another fell as the boy used both triggers to break down the defences of his enemies, while in reality the boy stood around his friend and wildly jumped around and triggered explosives and swipes that could've harmed both of them, luckily he had managed to steer the strikes away from Ziv's puppets as he knew that the boy revered them, though not exactly why, for there was a lot they didn't know about one another. Interestingly enough, Yume and his twin shared a chakra pool, so all this foolery was also draining his brothers pool, forcing him to stress about what was going on by Yume's side of the world until the boy relaxed with the triggering.

Worst of all was that the boys had forgotten all about Yagami, who was still biding his time, he was edging to take the egg once the smoke cleared, but that would be the least of the boy's concerns for Yami was struggling to keep the Griffin off of him and would soon have to bail on the whole mission. With the hoverboard and wits, the shadowy twin kept dodging and zooming about, though his path was starting to slowly turn towards the nest, for he figured that Yume and Ziv should've cleared the area but also that the mother would perhaps choose to stay by the nest rather than give chase, that or bail to school, either way, he needed to get away from this being.

"I'll make you pay for that one day." Yami wanted to swipe at her with his own version of Slither but refrained due to Yume being forced into the Avian household, fearing that his brother would get scolded if the Griffin got intentionally harmed.

[Zao]

Deep inside himself perhaps, or outside of his own body and consciousness, the white-haired kid stared out across the darkness from his own spot of light to the other empty one, his gaze transfixed upon the two slender yellow eyes just past the second spotlight now that overed just outside of the light within the void of darkness. "Who are you?" It was the most obvious question, Ziv didn't know anyone or anything like this figure who concealed their true identity at the moment and those eyes seemed to be looking directly into his soul at the moment, it caused his back to break out in a cold sweat as the hair on his body stood up like some kind of spider sense that this assailant was dangerous.

"My, my..." The deep voice echoed throughout the strange space, the head tilted in the shadows causing the eyes to turn almost clockwise as they continued to assess the young kid standing before them, like some kind of omnipotent being. "You really are his kid, heh." With that statement the kid widened his eyes and suddenly became even more interested in just whom he was speaking with. "You know my father?" Even Ziv couldn't say that he really knew his own father due to the circumstances that he truly didn't understand nor did his father speak of them clearly to the youth during their short time together before he ended up at the Sky Reach academy. "Keke.." An almost evil sounding laugh managed to escape the unseen lips of the stranger as he took a step forward causing his form to grow and appear larger, seeming to be a bit over two meters tall as he reached out with a single hand.

Hegemon Image for ReferenceShow

The hand that appeared on the edge of the light ring had clawed fingernails, its skin appeared smooth but was pitch black in color and as the man leaned in slightly towards the light his outline became more visible yet still not clear enough to make out any of the fine detail. But he was able to see that the hidden person or thing had long hair that seemed a bit messy stretching down past their shoulders and it almost appeared to be a gnarled looking twisted horn that came out of the left side of their forehead extending up eight or ten inches in length overall. Whomever or whatever refrained from completely exposing his face at this point and stopped just short, only revealing the dark-skinned arm with its sharp claws. "We have a deeply interwoven past, you could say. His power was almost my equal, almost."

The demonic figure seemed to make sure to point out that the boy's father, while powerful yes, was not his equal which only caused Ziv to be even more interested. Someone stronger than his father, the Spirit Saint, who probably ranked in the top five or ten shinobi in the entire world but still not someone as strong as this person before him. "You should understand this, after all, I can feel that some of my powerful is lurking within you. But if you want to unlock more of it and become someone who can overshadow even that man you must find the rest of my power that your father sealed away somewhere far away..." It would seem with those last words the time here was up and the two lights shut off simultaneously and a powerful suction would pull the boy's consciousness backwards.

Like some force of gravity had suddenly taken hold and he was pulled through a twisting tunnel that consisted of multicolor, yet through the tunnel he could see a strange floating island that seemed so familiar to him. Almost as though he'd been there before but in this mess of reality, he was unable to even think straight and then all at once things went black again. A few moments later his eyes flittered open as the sound of an explosion and conflict caused him to stir awake but all the strange things were gone...except the creepy clones as tiny snakes seemed to cover the ground. Out of the right side of his vision as he tried to force his body upright, he saw his friend had already recovered and was in full battle mode at this point.

"What is going on here...?" The confused boy only managed to get up to a knee at first, still feeling numb and having to force each of his muscles to move through sheer willpower at this point, not quite back in fighting shape as he was circulating his chakra to help push out the poison that he had inhaled earlier.

[Trusted Grader]

Will power or not, this Tsukiton tech was powerful, Yume if he could maintain his thought pattern for longer than a minute, would estimate that it would be around B-Rank level, explaining the multi-level chaos they were experiencing, he would be that if their will power was higher then this jutsu would just be bothersome, but right now? It was a bit much, for the boys seemed to be lost in the sauce, one had an encounter with a being while the other did his best to keep his friend alive, but none were focused on the incoming terror, so for now they were simply focused on dealing with their trip and the evil snake men.

With each strike, he felt his power grow weaker yet his adrenaline pushed him to the point where fear allowed each heartbeat to pulsate and project it to his psychosphere. Yume couldn't help but to fall for it, for he was tested, whether it was an imaginary enemy or not, would he stand by his friend who was clearly in need of help while he himself was wounded as well, or would he bail? But from the looks of it, he was down to defend his first friend, he knew not of the dangers they truly were in but he knew that if he wanted to achieve that future goal foretold then he would have to stand strong and defend, for Avians didn't care about who leads the team, they only cared about making it out alive. Live to fight another day!

"I'll see you around boyyyysssss... Remember to drink water, heh." Yagami's voice echoed through the valley, it took Yume a second to place who it belonged to, causing him to snap back to reality. "Shit! The egg!" Yume looked over at Ziv, both were still tripping but for a brief moment his head was clear, but from his understanding, it hit in waves, so while his mind was somewhat clear, he tried to get his friends attention, for he was still wondering where the hell Yami was, and now that he remembered the Griffin egg he figured that his brother was dealing with the mother, or else she would probably be here by now.

Struggling and stressing, beat down and depressed, feeling out of luck and almost like giving up, Yami fought the urge to let the Griffin take him but knew that if he gave in to the temptation then Yume would be left to fend for himself, so he focused on the next best, to abort the mission whether his brother was ready or not, he was going to zip past the nest in hopes of getting the beast of his back, he hoped dearly that Yume and Ziv had already left the area, that way his mission could be far easier for Yami was almost willing to sacrifice the Hoverboard that Brawl built for Yume in order to go back to 2 dimensions, but he knew deep down that it would be wrong, the old man had been nice enough to build it for Yume for free, the kid didn't know yet but in due time everything would make sense, for now, he had to focus on staying alive.

Please don't let this all be for nothing. Yami peered back at the incoming beast who seemed to be rather relentless, he turned his gaze back towards the nest area and started to look for any trees he could perhaps use to get the Griffin to bump into or perhaps get stuck in. He continued to look until he found a fallen tree whose entire innards had been dug out by termites, creating a makeshift bridge which Yami used to gain some space from the beast, fortunately for him the hole was small enough for him but not for the Griffin. The mamma smacked her shoulders against the wood, before pushing herself out and giving chase once again from another vantage point. Relentless!

"We have to get out of here!—" Yume peered to the left and nearly crapped his pants as he did something he never thought he would witness in his entire life, he saw what appeared to be the newly deceased rapper Sly Force being chased by a demonic-looking creature, with red wings that set ablaze the world, a phoenix angry that it's territory was being messed with, the hoverboarding rapper appeared to be around 3 minutes ride away due to the massive drop, which meant that Ziv and Yume had to take the opportunity now to make some space or else they would have to assist Yami in fighting the monster or chase after Yagami for the precious egg, time was of the essence, yet no choice was wrong.

"Ziv!"

---

2034

[Zao]

The confused kid was shaky, but on his feet finally after a few moments, both of his hands were on his knees thought helping to steady himself as the numbness from earlier was still lingering in various parts of his body at the moment and his head was pounding, but at least he believed that whatever strange visions that had been caused by the weird poison gases were over. Oh boy. But from his own point of view the world had returned back to normal but his hearing was coming and going, a side effect of the poison he assumed but he could hear the voice of his friend again as he began to look to the right and then back to the left as Yume came into view. Then from someplace that sounded far away the echoing voice of the upperclassman filled the ears of the fifth-year student, "Damn it!" It was too little too late for the boys to do much about Yagami who had already gotten what he came for and under the confusion and disorder caused by the gas he released managed to quickly escape into the valley leaving the two of them here to potentially face the wrath of the mama griffin that neither knew was fast approaching at the moment.

You couldn't help but chakra this effort up as a giant 'L', played by the older student and then left here in this situation with their minds still recovering from the Tsukiton technique, perhaps Ziv would learn more about this Tsukiton some other time at the academy. But he knew that, even in his current state of mind, that they could only leave this place and it would be best to do so in a hurry. It was in that same moment that his comrade called out to him that they needed to get out of here, both of the kids on the same wave length it would appear as he exhaled and channeled chakra into his hands reaching out to reclaim each of the gently damaged puppets from the crash landing a short while ago from the rapid descent down from the griffin nest while exchanging blows with Yagami. Then Yume called out his name as it drew Ziv's attention to the boy that nearly mirrored his own appearance and what he could be staring out, following his field of view the boy's mouth dropped open as he saw what was headed their way. At least what he saw in his own poisoned mind.

In front was what appeared to be something dark, shadowy, cloaked in black robes like some sort of dark reaper flying towards their location from out across the tree line. If that wasn't enough to freak one out what seemed to be chasing this strange ghostly figure would. It appeared to be some sort of skeletal griffin with massive bone wings that seemed to only have strips of flesh between the bones, how it was still able to fly who knew by its appearance, but the skeletal griffin had glowing red eyes in the exposed skull. Fight or flight. What would it be as Ziv felt his body lock up, frozen in place as the dangers were rapidly growing closer to him and his comrade, "Yume! We need to run!" Even at his peak the boy felt that whatever this mythical demon creature in the distance was, there was no way that either of them, even together, could have been a match for it. As he forced chakra through his body to get it to move properly, he could see that in the wake of the dark spirit and the undead griffin the world seemed to begin to slowly decay and turn black as though the dark energy radiating off the duo was corrupting everything that it touched. "We can't let whatever that is catch us for sure!" He called out in a full-on yell towards his friend, ready to move the moment he did.

[Trusted Grader]

Yami struggled and stressed to make sure that survived, but once he cleared the massive gap that would lead him towards the hill path back to the nest, he started to panic when he spotted Yume and Ziv fighting what appeared to be a mean genjutsu, their actions appeared erratic, meaning that they were likely not capable in assisting Yami with the Griffin, this left the shadow wondering if he should just steer the beast to the academy and force the teachers to act but also run the risk of injuring other students. No, we were specifically told not to go back here. Yami cursed under his breath as he continued the race.

The sun was now at its peak, shining down on the beautiful hill of Sky-Reach, for Yami the thick forest would cover most of the rays, save for a few god rays that beamed through the dark like a shining grace, while for Yume and Ziv it would slowly cook the tripping boys, which would make their experience a bit worse due to them not drinking any water, which was always handy. The sun would feel like a thousand furnaces were lying thick on them but the wind would cool them off, with its soothing kisses.

Yume, fully painicked grabbed Ziv's collar for a brief second as he began to run towards the slope they had recently slid down when they came here. The massive battle scar left by Rei, Yaho, and his brother appeared like a universe-level pothole with an infinite bottom that would send the boys to another dimension if they fell through, so he made sure to sidestep as he continued to rush up the hill. The previous scenery roots now appeared like sinister snake gods looming over the boys as they ever pulsated with their heartbeat, still, yet watching, conniving and teaming up with Yagami to fool them into revealing where the egg was hidden.

"I have had it with these damn snakes!" Yume sliced at one of the root systems as he continued up the path, Yami and the Griffin would reach the clearing once the boys had managed to reach the top of the hill where Yume had first encountered Rei, he stopped with a slide as he buckled under in order to catch his breath. The boy landed on the "soft" blue grass and almost began to drift due to the loss of blood, see, Yume forgot to wrap his wound up and had been bleeding for the past minutes unbeknownst to him, or did he recall looking at a broken arm? Yume couldn't remember, nor could he focus properly, all he could do was close his eyes and fight to catch his breath.

"Well, not for nothing but... I think we handled that as best as we could, considering that we could've ended up fighting that demon." Yume chuckled but stopped once the Griffins crying wail reached them, she had now spotted that one of the eggs was missing and was panicking, fortunately, the boys were now far enough that they weren't in immediate danger, though one couldn't tell what the untold consequences of Yagami's actions could be. A tear streamed down Yume's left cheek as he apologized for failing to protect the egg. "Forgive us... We tried our best." Their best wasn't enough in the face of true danger, if they truly wanted to protect the weak then they needed to get stronger.

Universal firecrackers went off, revealing dragons and goblins alike, beings of darkness clashing with holy creatures in an endless battle amalgamation that pulled the boy's mind through different emotions, growing attached to his brother and new friend, but also fearing what they were capable of, creating a small space between them within his head, a pandora's box of his hopes and fears locked away deep within his subconscious mind. Yami, the sober brother on the other hand would swerve towards the wall then push off in the opposite direction and bounce off the griffin with the hoverboard, causing the beast to slam to the ground, giving Yami much breathing space.

"Told you I'd get you!" The shadowy brother chuckled as he pushed the hoverboard to return home, he had turned into a bird as he felt that it would be better to fly the last part, once he would reach the nest he would turn 2 dimensional and then make his grand escape, and thus he did.

Soon teachers would begin to merge around Yume and Ziv, checking their vitals and taking note that the boys were poisoned, they were immediately taken to the nursing home where they would be treated. Waking up with a splitting headache, the white-haired boy looked down at his left arm and felt the heavy white casket lying on his side, struggling to sit up he looked for his friend and then for Yami, who was yet again pretending to be a black cat staring out the window. "I guess training didn't go so well huh?" Yume lightly knocked on the ugly casket and let a heavy sigh out as he leaned back.

"I won't ask just yet what happened, what I will say is that I am glad that you boys are safe. From the looks of the surrounding area it seems that we will have to help the nearby village with reforesting a section that belongs to them." Hozok leaned off the doorframe, he swaggerly strode towards Yume, pointed at his casked, and shook his head. "You are lucky that you just broke your arm, remind me to ask you later what happened." He then walked to Ziv and inspected his scars and bruises. "You seem to have gotten through it a lot better, but one can't tell what kind of scars hide on the inside. I don't think that dosage was appropriate for kids your age." Hozok turned around and walked towards the window.

"I bet you guys had fun though." The teacher chuckled as he uncrossed his arms and left the room. "Rest up now boys, and please try to stay out of trouble, or we are going to have to start holding class in the nursing room for you."

---

3067

[Zao]

The poisonous gas effects seemed to be much stronger upon the kid than his friend, only moving on instinct as his friend grabbed him by the collar but the terrain around them almost seemed alive as he glanced back over his shoulder seeing the skeletal griffin, appearing like some undead summoned monster that a necromancer would have summoned to do his bidding, closing in on where they had previously been. His body swaying from side to side, the extra weight from his glove and ankle weights felt like tons of weight strapped to his boy in that moment. feeling almost like he was running in slow motion, or perhaps his perception of the world was that time had slowed itself. Everything was so vibrant and the colors he could feel them as he rushed past different things that shouldn't have been there. Everything was turning into a blur for the student as Ziv had to literally force his eyes to stay open, unsure of just how much longer he could last.

He stood with his brother, atop an old battle site (literally probably only a few days) the pair stood as the youth's puppets fell to the ground and he seemed to be staring back behind them in the direction they had come as the darkness from his vision was slowly spreading toward the griffin egg nest high up on the side of the large mountain. Ziv could only shake his head lightly back and forth, that snake dude had definitely gotten away with that egg, were they failures? The boy stumbled as he tried to find his center of gravity looking back towards his friend, "A fight best avoided." Even though both of the students had seen different versions of the beast, neither believed such a fight against a monster like that worth their own lives and running away to fight another day was never a bad survival motto. Unable to keep his balance the boy allowed himself to flop down on his backside in the scarred earth, his eyes closed falling back into state of semi unconsciousness.

Back within that dark void he saw the shadow of the large demonic man again, his dark arm still the only thing that entered the light, there were no words at first only a long, slow laugh echoing throughout the space that seemed to cause the very fabric of that place to vibrate. "How could someone with my power within them be so weak? You're really pathetic, you know?" As the echoing laugher ended the demon spoke to him, viewing him as some sort of piece of trash. "When you're tired of being weak, find the floating island and recover my power. Or just be a weakling forever, I mean it really is your choice after all." Ziv had no understanding of the passage of time but as the demon's words finished everything went dark and the next thing, he knew he was startled awake as he rocketed up from his bed, setting up as droplets from a cold sweat rolled down his face. 'What is that power? The floating island, does he mean the island within my father's personal realm?' He had awoken with so many questions from his visions as he found himself blinking a few times, trying to get his bearings in that moment as he suddenly realized that he was in the school's medical clinic.

"Yume?" He mouthed aloud as he turned to see the boy with a cast on his arm in a bed not too far from his own, a strange black cat also caught his eye that was staring out the window. Letting out a long exhale of temporary relief, Ziv allowed his body to fall back onto the bed as he raised his arms up. Around where the weights had been on his wrist and hands the skin was bruised and scrapped up, currently under some bandaging but he could feel the injuries underneath, similar ones could be found from the weights on his ankles. But overall, he was unharmed despite the little adventure the pair had just been on, though he made no mention of just what kind of trials they had faced as he turned to see their head teacher in the room. But the speech he assumed they were about to get, a lecture on their behavior and such, never came to the boy's surprise as he could only nod back in return to Hozok. 'He seems to know what happened, but we aren't being punished, at least not like I thought. Hozok-sama is truly an interesting teacher.

With a gentle moment of laughter that slipped from his thin lips, Ziv turned and looked over toward the direction of Yume and his shadow brother, "Let's not do anything like that again any time soon, if we can help it." Though he was partly joking, attempting to lift the mood a bit for the three of them, in the back of his mind he wanted to figure out just who that green haired student was. He knew that he was at least a four year, had green hair, and knew what house he belonged to. After they got out of here in a few days, he'd seem if any of the other fifth year students knew him. Someday, they'd be even...